GDT: Bruins (booooo) visit keybank center. 6pm FO. MSG-B, NESN.

[JohnC]

33 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

I'm tellin' ya, when the Sabres are good, a decent chunk of that will be Krebs.  And people will look back and say the development of Tage into an offensive star and Krebs into a solid 2-way center will be the biggest contributions Donny Meatballs made to the team.

It was Coach Donny that also got Dahling unlocked from the Krueger shackles. Krebs is starting to carve out a role for himself for his energetic and gritty play. But the player who will be appreciated more when the Sabres become more of a factor in the league is Benson. When he becomes more physically developed he will be recognized as one of the mainstay players on this team. To their credit, both Krebs and Benson are full effort players. 

Edited Monday at 02:07 AM by JohnC

[thewookie1]

***** Montreal won yet again; of course they have to go on a 5 game win streak…..

All the other teams around us have behaved and have been mediocre and yet the Canadiens have just refused to lose game after game.

Now to get in, we must go undefeated and Montreal must not get more than 2 pts.

[OverPowerYou]

5 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

***** Montreal won yet again; of course they have to go on a 5 game win streak…..

All the other teams around us have behaved and have been mediocre and yet the Canadiens have just refused to lose game after game.

Now to get in, we must go undefeated and Montreal must not get more than 2 pts.

And of course we don’t play them 

[Brawndo]

4 minutes ago, OverPowerYou said:

And of course we don’t play them 

Going 0-4 against them was disappointing 

[JohnC]

Just now, Brawndo said:

Going 0-4 against them was disappointing 

They didn't simply beat us---they thoroughly spanked us! 

[Thorner]

One sabres loss or one habs win eliminates us 

[DarthEbriate]

24 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

The Bruins have Jokiharju and were playing their backup goalie.  

Their D was like watching the Sabres.  Terrible positioning.  Terrible decision making and terrible in zone processing.  

Kulich, Thompson and Benson look like the real deal.  I love watching Benson dig out pucks in the corner and look for Thompson.  Such a pleasure to watch someone who actually know how to play hockey and gives the requisite effort. 

Jokiharju is their best defenseman and was somehow a +1 today and is a plus since joining their team. But when Joker is your best, you’re going to have issues. Apart from he and Zadorov, the rest of that AHL d-corps is like watching the Sabres-Canes playoff series or the Reinhart/Eichel tank seasons with less experienced players. 

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, SABRES 0311 said:

I’m looking forward to the summer threads about roster configuration. There’s actually so many possibilities and areas to address. 

Do we give up assets for a starting goalie?

Do we go after a top four dman?

Top six forward?

Who plays with who?

Yes, Yes, Yes, depends. 

[dudacek]

2 hours ago, HumanSlinky39 said:

The Bruins are absolute ass. It's great to see.

I’ve seen plenty of games where the Sabres have gotten off to a good start and then it becomes real obvious how much better the other team is over the 2nd and 3rd.

Haven’t been many times I’ve seen the shoe on the other foot.

That was one bad Boston team.

2 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Benson is going to be a pain in the ass for opposing teams for years to come 

The production still isn’t there; he’s gone 0/4/4/+2 on this 7 wins in 8 games heater.

But the eye test says hell ya, and the analytics back that up - he leads the team with a 55.8 SAT% over that stretch and with 56.3% on the season.

It’s so weird how with so many kids you see the offence and you say ‘don’t worry the D will come’. He’s one of the only guys I’ve ever seen show the D first.

[dudacek]

I think this may be the first time I’ve typed these words, but Sam Lafferty looked good today.

No one ever talks about him because he’s been such a non-factor, but my god has he been a disappointment. I was actually happy when they signed him after watching him last year in Vancouver.

Today he looked like the player I thought we were getting.

[inkman]

I mean whatever at this point.  

[Stads]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

He’s one of the only guys I’ve ever seen show the D first.

Did he get consent first?

[GASabresIUFAN]

9th worst team in the  NHL.  Yeah!   Need to go 5-1-0 in the last 6 to match last year's level of "success.."  

 

[SABRES 0311]

4 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

9th worst team in the  NHL.  Yeah!   Need to go 5-1-0 in the last 6 to match last year's level of "success.."  

 

Paging James Reimer

 

 

[PerreaultForever]

4 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

They're not even in the same ballpark, of the same league, on the same continent as the 2015 Sabres.

I disagree. Sabres were already bad before they tanked in 2015. Same goes for Chicago and San Jose and others. It's a much harder switch to go from a playoff team to the bottom in less than half a season. That's some serious tear down skill. 

[LGR4GM]

6 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I disagree. Sabres were already bad before they tanked in 2015. Same goes for Chicago and San Jose and others. It's a much harder switch to go from a playoff team to the bottom in less than half a season. That's some serious tear down skill. 

Boston traded 3 guys. Only 2 of those trades were for futures. They aren't tanking, they just suck. 

What Buffalo did in 2013/2014 is what tanking is.

[Pimlach]

9 hours ago, dudacek said:

I think this may be the first time I’ve typed these words, but Sam Lafferty looked good today.

No one ever talks about him because he’s been such a non-factor, but my god has he been a disappointment. I was actually happy when they signed him after watching him last year in Vancouver.

Today he looked like the player I thought we were getting.

I thought he has a good but short stretch in November too, Ruff said he did.  Then he disappeared.  

[Pimlach]

39 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Boston traded 3 guys. Only 2 of those trades were for futures. They aren't tanking, they just suck. 

What Buffalo did in 2013/2014 is what tanking is.

I don’t think the coaching change helped at all.  McAvoy is out, he is their Dahlin.  Marchand got old, they miss his leadership.  

Debrusk, Coyle, others of that ilk are gone.  
 

No one fears the Bruins.  They have one line.  

[Pimlach]

Despite all the hand wringing here I don’t think Ruff handled Östlund wrong so far. 

Make him play defense and be responsible first.  Playing 4th line with Maley and Lafferty isn’t his end role but he still created some opportunities, he passes well and he sees the ice.  
 

Playing him on PP2 was also smart to let him stretch out his game.  
 

I liked what I saw but he will benefit more from a second season in Rochester.   He could be the playmaker I am looking for. 

Edited Monday at 01:57 PM by Pimlach

[mjd1001]

17 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I don’t think the coaching change helped at all.  McAvoy is out, he is their Dahlin.  Marchand got old, they miss his leadership.  

Debrusk, Coyle, others of that ilk are gone.  
 

No one fears the Bruins.  They have one line.  

Lets not forget about their goaltending, the same issue facing the Sabres this year. 

And yeah, i know the goalies numbers have a lot to do with the team in front of him...I get that, but Swayman has fallen off a cliff. Swayman went from a CAREER .919 save percentage to .895 this year.  And again, not just a bad team in front of him, he has looked bad, allowing a lot of goals this year that he made the saves on last year. 

[North Buffalo]

12 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Despite all the hand wringing here I don’t think Ruff handled Östlund wrong so far. 

Make him play defense and be responsible first.  Playing 4th line with Maley and Lafferty isn’t his end role but he still created some opportunities, he passes well and he see the ice.  
 

Playing him on PP2 was also smart to let him stretch out his game.  
 

I liked what I saw but he will benefit more from a second season in Rochester.   He could be the playmaker I am looking for. 

Not sure if there is a spot for him til maybe either Quinn is traded or gets healthier and someone else is moved.

[Pimlach]

Just now, mjd1001 said:

Lets not forget about their goaltending, the same issue facing the Sabres this year. 

And yeah, i know the goalies numbers have a lot to do with the team in front of him...I get that, but Swayman has fallen off a cliff. Swayman went from a CAREER .919 save percentage to .895 this year.  And again, not just a bad team in front of him, he has looked bad, allowing a lot of goals this year that he made the saves on last year. 

They let Linus go and Swayman lost his mojo. 

[dudacek]

16 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Despite all the hand wringing here I don’t think Ruff handled Östlund wrong so far. 

Make him play defense and be responsible first.  Playing 4th line with Maley and Lafferty isn’t his end role but he still created some opportunities, he passes well and he see the ice.  
 

Playing him on PP2 was also smart to let him stretch out his game.  
 

I liked what I saw but he will benefit more from a second season in Rochester.   He could be the playmaker I am looking for. 

Saw somewhere that his analytics were almost perfect last night.

Over 90% SAT and 100 xGoals?

Edited Monday at 12:51 PM by dudacek

[Pimlach]

1 minute ago, North Buffalo said:

Not sure if there is a spot for him til maybe either Quinn is traded or gets healthier and someone else is moved.

There isn’t if you have a healthy Norris and Greenway.  Kozak will push for 4C also. 

Edited Monday at 12:51 PM by Pimlach

[mjd1001]

2 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Saw somewhere that his analytics were almost perfect last night.

Over 90% SAT and 100 xGoals?

Maybe I read it wrong, but I saw 100% shots (but that was simply 2 to 0), and expected goals just barely above 50 (53.96,  0.18 for, 0.15 against)

His line won Corsi 10 to 3, and Fenwick 5 to 2, But scoring chances and high danger chances were even 2 for/2 against and  1 for/ 1 against.

Good numbers, very good still for one game.